JKLF chief Yasin Malik claims 1994 release was part of govt deal to renounce militancy

Jailed JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, who was awarded a life sentence by an NIA court in 2022, claimed in an affidavit submitted to the Delhi High Court that his release in 1994—after his arrest as JKLF chief commander in 1990—and his renouncement of militancy in favor of a nonviolent path were part of a deal with the then Central Government.

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He stated that the promise (or understanding with him) was honored by every single dispensation of the Indian government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term until 2019. “All these dispensations kept on engaging with me,” he said. Malik, presently lodged in Tihar jail after being awarded life sentence in a terror funding case, filed the affidavit in response to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking death penalty for him in the case, according to a report.

Yasin Malik, who was among the pioneers of armed militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989, was arrested by security forces on August 6, 1990, in Srinagar when he was the chief commander of the militant outfit JKLF.